The Girl in the Painting
by LordSadLampshade
Summary: When Liv wakes up in the middle of a desert with nothing but a large, human-sized painting for company, she's understandably confused. Even more so when a strange man in a blue box is waiting for her. One shot, 1338 words.


Being stuck in a painting had never been Liv's idea of a good time.

She rocked on her heels, staring at the huge gold frame and the empty painted bed inside it. She, of course, wasn't currently inside the painting. But the vague memories of sleep and the sour smell of paint confirmed her suspicions that she had been.

Liv reached out a hand and ran her fingers along the rough canvas. She blinked, drowsy, trying to recall how she'd escaped.

After some time, she decided it couldn't have been her, not on her own- it must have been someone from the outside. Maybe it was her brother- the last thing she could remember was him, popping out of the blue. But maybe it was just Liv being paranoid and the Master had nothing to do with it. _I wish._

The painting was of Gallifreyan design, she concluded. So it must have been someone who knew about the three-dimensional pieces of art from her home world. Though, presently, she was more concerned about how she'd regenerated while in suspended animation.

Liv ran her hands along her arms. So, a new body, a new face. _Bloody short, though._

Hair- long, black, oily. _Ick._ Tanned, but not dark, skin.

Liv guessed it was her fourth or fifth regeneration, although she had no idea how long she'd been in the painting. A hundred years? A thousand? A million?

Liv glanced around at her surroundings. She was in a massive desert, the sun beating down on her back. Still in her singlet and pants.

Her trenchcoat and other paraphernalia lay a few feet away, neatly folded, and her sonic screwdriver sat on the top of the pile, gleaming in the sunlight.

As Liv tied her trenchcoat around her waist, a small object fell out of the pocket. It was an old human cellphone with too many buttons and too little space to put them. Packing tape wrapped around it and a bent antennae stuck haphazardly out of the top.

Liv cringed as she picked it up. She didn't want to think about the days she'd called it, the things she'd used it to do. And the people that had died because of it.

On the screen was a text, sent to herself, but obviously written by someone else.

Liv squinted at it, trying to read it in the glare of the light.

 _Watch out for the Dalek. -M_

Liv turned at that exact moment, and narrowly missed a burst of electric energy that flew past her face. It skimmed a few millimetres short of her ear. Liv shrieked in surprise, ducking to one side and whipping her sonic screwdriver from her pocket.

The Dalek cried, " _Id-en-ti-fy your-self_!"

Liv said nothing. The creature would figure it out soon enough.

It gestured with it's suction-cup arm at the painting, lying face-up in the sand. " _Ex-plain_!"

Liv remained silent, but slowly reached for her gun, which was the last item in the pile of things left for her. The Dalek noticed.

" _I com-mand you to ex-plain_!"

Liv's hands were shaking, but she managed to switch on her gun and point it at the approaching Dalek's eyestalk. The creature said nothing, but instead levelled its gunstick at her face in turn.

" _You are a Tiiime Lord_ ," it stated. Liv nodded. "It looks like we're at a bit of a standoff, then."

" _Neg-at-ive. The sta-tis-tic-al odds of you fir-ing acc-ur-ate-ly with a sin-gle bul-let are at twen-ty-five per-cent. Mine are a-ppro-xim-ate-ly at sev-en-ty-five per-cent_."

Liv glared at the Dalek. "That's better than nothing." She tried to scramble to her feet, but the Dalek was almost upon her. It stopped her with a quick screech of, " _Time Lord, stop your move-ment_!"

Its arm slid into its armour and appeared again with a claw-like appendage. It grabbed Liv's shoulder roughly and hoisted her to her feet.

"Why... why haven't you shot me?" She managed through gritted teeth. Blood dribbled down her shirt from where the dalek's claw held her.

The creature said nothing.

Liv grinned, although it was closer to a grimace. "Ah... you're- you're curious. You want to know why the painting is here and what it has to do with me."

"... _Aff-irm-at-ive. Ex-plaaain_."

"I," Liv said, reaching for her gun again, "haven't the slightest idea. Ta."

She aimed her gun and fired.

Instead of a bullet, the gun spurted a bright green liquid. Acid. It attached itself to the Dalek's eyestalk and melted it off in less than two seconds. It shrieked, claw tightening on Liv's shoulder. She cried out in pain, and dripped some of the green acid onto the claw, dissolving it. Liv tumbled from the blind Dalek's grip, and rolled away, scooping up her phone and sonic and stuffing them into her pockets.

The Dalek was wheeling in circles as the acid began to dissolve the rest of its body from the top down. It screamed, " _Ex-ter-min-ate! Ex-ter-min-ate_!" and fired shots into the air.

Liv stumbled away, leaving the painting and the dalek behind in a cloud of dust.

In the distance, she spotted a bright blue box. She wobbled towards it, keeping pressure on her bleeding shoulder. She hadn't lost too much blood yet, but she would soon it she didn't get it bandaged.

As she approached the blue box, two figures became visible in the haze of heat. The taller one waved. Liv waved back, then gritted her teeth as her shoulder throbbed.

 _Almost there. Almost there._

"Hello there!" Said the taller figure, whom Liv could now see was a man. "Having some trouble?"

"Yes," she said, voice hoarse, "I er, I'm bleeding."

The man had to be a Time Lord; Liv was sure of it. The girl beside him... a companion, most likely, judging by the way she looked, uncertain, at the man, then back at Liv.

"Doctor..." the woman said, tucking a strand of blond hair behind her ear.

'Doctor' patted the blue box. A TARDIS, then. "Eh, she doesn't look too dangerous. And she's hurt."

"Could I... could I use your TARDIS? For first aid." Liv gestured to the door.

The Time Lord gave her an odd look. "Come again?"

Liv realised her mistake. "Oh, um... I meant, your ship. Sorry, misspoke."

'Doctor' shook his head. "No, I definitely heard you say TARDIS. T-A-R-D-I-S. Time And Relative Dimension In Space, yes?"

 _Damn it_. "Just... just a guess. I've heard about the Time Lords before."

The Time Lord looked as if he were about to say something, but he must have thought better of it. He opened the TARDIS door and stepped inside. Liv and the woman followed.

"I'm the Doctor, by the way," the Time Lord said as he punched in a few number into the ship's console.

"Doctor... who?" Liv asked, keeping pressure on her shoulder, which sent jolts of pain through her body. She winced.

"Just the Doctor," He reached over and pulled down a lever, "and the girl is Rose Tyler."

"Hello," Rose smiled a little, shaking Liv's hand.

"I'm Liv," Liv told them, "and where's the first aid?"

"Oh! Sorry, sorry," Rose produced a small bag and pulled out a roll of bandages, a pair of scissors and some dressings. "Is this alright?"

"Perfect," Liv took the items and pulled her shirt down to expose the wound. It didn't look half as bad as it felt- maybe a centimetre deep and a few centimetres across.

The Doctor appeared behind Liv, glancing over to look at the wound.

"What did that?" He asked as Rose unrolled the dressings and cut them into strips.

Should she tell him that it was a dalek? _No. It's dead now, no point causing a fuss over it_.

"I tripped," Liv said, voice flat, untying her trenchcoat and dropping it on the floor beside her.

Rose and the Doctor nodded, seeming to believe her.

Until, of course, her sonic screwdriver rolled out of her coat pocket.

"Damn it," Liv muttered under her breath. This was going to be a long day.


End file.
